


Ten Facts About The Role Reversal Verse

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Role Reversal Verse [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Role Reversal, empress!Lumiya, evil!Luke, good!Palpatine, rr-verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-26
Updated: 2012-03-26
Packaged: 2017-11-02 13:35:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/369534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippets from the lives of those under Lumiya and Vader's rule -- as well as the rulers themselves. Alternate Universe, farmboy hero!Anakin, fallen Jedi!Luke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Facts About The Role Reversal Verse

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Basically a part of my Role Reversal verse -- in other words, what if Luke was the Jedi Knight who fell and became Darth Vader, and Anakin was the farmboy who had to bring down both him and Empress Lumiya? It's been a difficult trek in terms of writing the 'verse, mostly due to where everything goes, but honestly? It's been fun so far, even with the difficulties. :)
> 
> Mostly did this in order to get into the mindsets of Anakin and company -- especially the villains.
> 
> Lumiya's line at the beginning of the last "fact", so to speak, is actually a line from BLOODLINES -- when she's talking to her apprentice/accomplice, Jacen Solo, in regards to the sacrifice he's going to make in order to become a Sith Lord. Let's say that I've sort of based her character around that in a few ways.
> 
> Anyways...hope you enjoy, and please leave feedback.

1\. Though Anakin loves his foster parents deeply, he cannot help but want more than what he’s got.

He can’t say it’s a terrible experience on Tatooine -- after all, he has Kitster, and he has Wald, and some very good friends. Jira is another good friend of his -- it definitely helps whenever he’s heading home from his stint at Watto’s shop and he wants to buy some pallies, just in case. And speeder-racing through the desert -- that’s wonderful.

Yet even so, he wants more than the life he has. He has heard some of the stories from space pilots who come through the area -- some talk about the Empire, and how he wants to run off and find something he could do about it. How he wants to do something to help!

_Mom, didn’t you say once that the biggest problem in this universe is that nobody helps each other?_

Even now, remembering their dinner discussion, Anakin cannot help but feel frustrated -- how could Cliegg not understand? Shmi understood, of course, but she knew he couldn’t quite go yet.

And even now, Anakin doesn’t want to leave yet. He doesn’t want to leave his foster family, his friends, behind. Even the idea terrifies him.

And yet even now, looking over at the twin suns on Tatooine, glowing softly in the sky, Anakin wonders if he will ever find a way to get off this planet.

2\. Even dropping off the son, Anakin, at Shmi and Cliegg Lars’ house, Han cannot help but feel a pang of guilt. A pang of anger, really -- both Luke and Mara deserved better than they got. Luke didn’t deserve to be put through these things by Lumiya and Caedus -- didn’t deserve to be turned into Vader.

Han didn’t deserve it. But even that is insignificant compared to the larger truth -- nobody deserved what happened.

He knocks on the door, and Shmi Lars opens it. She’s a lovely woman, with rich dark hair and a kind, gentle face. Even now, she smiles, and invites Han in, if only because he must be weary.

“I cannot say we have much,” she says. “Not after the Tusken attack.” She grows somber, almost as if remembering the deaths of Beru and Owen Lars -- and even thinking about it, Han muses, it’s not fair either. They were good people -- damn good people from what Luke described. They didn’t deserve the fate they did. “But what we have,” Shmi adds, “We have to spare.”

The food is good -- even now, after that long trip to Tatooine, after Mustafar, Han feels...rejuvenated, somehow. And even now, with little Anakin savoring whatever food they’ve served, Han can’t help but feel a degree of warmth fill him, watching the boy observe his surroundings inquisitively, cooing all the while.

“Who is he?” Shmi asks. “The boy with you.”

“Luke’s son.”

“What happened to Luke?” Cliegg asked.

Even now, Han doesn’t want to tell them. How can he possibly explain it -- explain what happened on Mustafar? How can he explain walking through the Jedi Temple and seeing the bodies of the slaughtered Jedi -- even the younglings?

He shouldn’t have taken on Luke, he knows. He should have sent him home. But then again -- would that have changed anything? And what if Mace had lived -- would that have changed anything?

Han swallows, looks down -- suddenly unable to look these two wonderful, amazing people that he feels he shouldn’t be dining with (not after what he’s done) in the eye. “Luke...he fell. In battle.” It’s a lie, yes, but it’s also true -- from a certain point of view.

He’s always loathed the “certain point of view” aspect. Now, only now, does he truly realize what it means.

And he still hates it.

 

3\. Obi-Wan cannot say that he has a particular attachment to any of the Jedi. At least, he has allied himself and helped them when he could, but he can’t say he became attached to any of them per se.

Still, walking through the Temple, observing the bodies of the younglings and Padawans and Knights and Masters, he cannot help but feel Han’s grief -- the nerve-wracking sobs that now tear through the otherwise cocky, wise-cracking Jedi Master as he observes the carnage.

“Han...” Leia’s voice is careful, quiet -- almost as if she’s frightened. She’s never seen Han like this, Obi-Wan knows -- he doubts any of them truly have. “Han, I’m so sorry.”

Eventually, Han manages to recover, only to look at the body of one youngling as if just realizing something. “That wound’s too clean to be a blaster bolt,” he says, almost clinical, numbly -- almost like a droid assessing the situation. “And a bit too accurate as well.”

“Did this damage, a lightsaber most likely did,” Yoda says grimly.

“All right,” Han says, “But...who?”

Yoda’s ears flatten, almost as if pointing at Han, like accusing fingers. “Know already, you do.”

“I’m aware of this, Master Yoda,” Han says, impatiently, “But knowing is one thing.” He goes quiet. “Seeing is another.”

“Only pain, seeing will bring you.”

“Then I’ve earned it,” Han says. “Let’s reset the recall beacon first. Then...then we can get some answers.”

 

4\. It’s long while they sit by the fireplace, on Stewjon, listening to the others laugh and joke outside. Even now, Padme cannot help but feel a sting of envy -- and worse, loneliness. It reminds her all too well how Life Day used to be spent on Naboo -- playing with Ryoo and Pooja while they made up songs about Artoo-Detoo, and later, listening to the songs of Life Day in the streets...

It’s almost inappropriate for a Senator to feel -- and unfair. If anything, Obi-Wan deserves all the happiness with his family he can possibly receive. He has had too little happiness in his life -- him and everyone else.

Well, perhaps “too little” is a slight hyperbole, but even so...

“You miss your family, don’t you?” Anakin’s voice is gentle, almost hesitant -- as if he’s afraid to offend her.

Of course, he shouldn’t be. They are, after all, friends now -- are they not?

“Yes,” Padme says, “For my part.”

 

5\. The first time that Jar-Jar Binks met Obi-Wan Kenobi, they were in the same prison together. Jar-Jar had been rounded up alongside his fellow Gungans -- for some reason or another, the Empire didn’t seem to like “aliens” very much, if the way that some of the Wookiees were referred to by...that one officer was anything to go by.

The best Jar-Jar could do in that hellish place was at least try and keep his spirits up. Make witty observations. Granted, “talking back” got you a bit of a crack of the whip, unfortunately, but even so, it was better than the alternative.

Jar-Jar Binks was young, yes, but he was no fool -- some of the prisoners had gone mad in that place, some even pleading for their captors to “kill me and get it over with”.

The captors hadn’t obliged, of course.

“Just stay strong, Jar-Jar,” Obi-Wan had said to him. “We’ll find a way to get out of this.”

“Mebbe. But how?”

“I’m thinking,” Obi-Wan said. “There has to be some sort of chink in the armor of this prison, some escape route of some kind...”

In the end, they had managed to crawl through the ventilation ducts and escape to freedom. They had then taken on separate identities -- Obi-Wan taking on the name “Ben Ryder”.

Jar-Jar never thought that they would have to go underground in such a fashion, but even so...it was better than the alternative.

6\. He’s dreamed of Luke. First time in quite a while. In the dream, he sees a construct -- a circular construct larger than a moon, larger than a space station, and inside, he sees Luke -- now Vader. He sees Vader, dressed in the black armor that he knows far too well -- that the galaxy knows too well. And he sees a boy, lean and slightly awkward, with a mop of dark blond hair and piercing eyes much like a river frozen in its flood -- having his mother’s eyes and his father’s appearance.

And in the dream, the boy and his father duel as the Empress overlooks them, a quiet, neutral observer, seeing how the battle plays out.

Except it doesn’t go the way she expects.

In the dream, the boy not only wins, but defies her.

In the dream, Vader redeems himself -- as does the Empress.

In the dream, Vader removes his helmet to reveal Luke Skywalker’s face -- yellow eyes returned to their old blue -- blue as the sky.

But all good dreams must come to an end, unfortunately, and Palpatine awakes -- only to sense a presence in the Force. Daala has returned. With guests.

“They were ambushed by stormtroopers a while ago,” she says. “I have a feeling they’ll be back, soon enough.”

But Palpatine is almost not listening to her words. If anything, he’s spotted the boy from his vision in the crowd. Tall, a bit awkward, seeming almost as if his lean frame could not contain his overabundance of energy, so much like his father...

Anakin Skywalker has returned.

7\. She cannot say that she has been the perfect soldier -- if anything, during her tenure under Pellaeon, she has done things that have ranged from the stupid-yet-ingenius (as another officer called it) to the downright life-threatening (or at least, the type that got her more than a few reprimands from Pellaeon). She’s lost multiple friends along the way during the Vong Wars, and she still hasn’t forgiven Caedus for it -- if anything, his atrocities were one reason the Confederation propaganda boiled her blood so much. For all their pretensions of bringing order, they were overturning the Republic and killing innocents. If anything, they were the guilty, every one.

And to think Luke may have joined them, or at least the true mastermind behind it...

Even the thought of it is enough to make her sick. And wish, more than anything, she had gotten to the Temple with Ruwee Naberrie sooner if only to save the rest of the Jedi. Master Yoda said to her, of course, that it wasn’t her fault, and there was nothing she could have done, and that Luke had chosen his path and yadda yadda yadda...

All right, the last one was true, at least. Still, Natasi Daala finds it doesn’t sit comfortably with her, to say the least.

The best she can do is continue to assist the Rebellion however she can. _“We will never betray the Republic,”_ she had promised Master Yoda.

And no matter what happens, she’ll keep that promise.

No matter what.

8\. Waiting out the torture on Kashyyyk isn’t easy, but it’s better than the alternative. Even now, Vestara has heard stories of those who were in Imperial prisons -- from what Obi-Wan has told her, some of them even go mad and beg their interrogators to kill them.

She knows that Anakin, for example, is growing closer to it.

She knows that her brother has cursed out Vader more than a few times. “If you really have the guts, go ahead and kill me. Force knows I’ve earned it.” And yet, somehow, Vader hasn’t. If anything, Vader doesn’t seem to want to kill Anakin Skywalker, doesn’t want to kill his own son. Her brother.

Perhaps there is a speck of good in their father. Even so, Vestara doesn’t understand how one could forgive Vader for his crimes.

Then again, compassion and forgiveness are different beasts, aren’t they?

Even so, Vestara doesn’t quite believe it. Compassion she can do -- nobody deserved to burn on Mustafar like that, no matter what their crimes. Even now, she can’t imagine how Vader survived like that -- she can only conclude that somehow, Lumiya loved him. And somehow, she showed him mercy.

Vestara is so used to seeing the Empire as the face of the enemy -- seeing Vader’s face as the face of the enemy. And yet, she can’t hate her father.

No matter how hard she tries.

9\. For a moment, Vader has to reread the database, to check and make sure that somehow, his eyes haven’t deceived him. But they haven’t. The database speaks the truth -- at least in terms of finding out about the boy who destroyed the First Death Star. He can’t say that he’s sad to see it go per se -- are there not more pleasant options of enforcing order? And even now, in the context of having to destroy Naboo, he cannot help but feel a twinge of guilt. How hypocritical must he be? -- but the humiliation he suffered at Yavin...that he can’t forgive.

And yet somehow, the name on the screen catches his attention.

 _Anakin Skywalker._

Something about that name rings a bell.

And then he remembers. Talking with Mara about what to name the baby -- back when they were uncertain if it was a boy or if it was a girl. Mara had suggested the name “Vestara” for the girl, and “Anakin” for the boy.

_Anakin. Warrior._ A fitting name indeed.

His son could be very well the most powerful man in the galaxy.

And for the first time in a month or so, Vader allows himself a small smile.

 

10\. _It’s easy to be a clean-cut hero slaying monsters. There’s a bit of vanity in it. There is no pride in being despised._

Lumiya remembers saying that to Vader, quite a while ago -- when he was starting out, so to speak, on the path of becoming one of the most fearsome Jedi killers of all time. Only the Sith triumvirate of old could even come close to Vader’s glory, but even so, Lumiya can only pray their Empire does not fall apart the way that triumvirate did.

She has come too far in accomplishing her master’s vision to have it fall apart over a petty power struggle. Granted, petty power struggles are the way of the Sith, but this...they may have to make an exception in this case.

Lord Revan had warned of the peril of taking more than one apprentice. And yet, somehow, hearing of Vader’s son, Anakin Skywalker...

The boy could be a powerful ally if turned. Talented, resourceful, intelligent, idealistic -- he would be a perfect asset in terms of making the Empire the way it ought to be. The only problem is that he will need work. He is brash and headstrong, and too loyal to those he loves for his own good.

He will have to learn that sacrifices have to be made, as his father did.

But in time...in time, they will turn him.

And the three will be the new triumvirate. The triumvirate.

And no matter what happens to them, they always will be.


End file.
